MOVIE REVIEW Kevin Costner's new Western epic "Horizon: An American Saga— Chapter 1" is the kind of film that begs the question, "How did this get made?" But we already know, because part of the film's lore is that producer-director-star-co-writer Costner staked the funding himself, at great personal risk. In order to devote himself to the four-part "Horizon: An American Saga," the Oscar-winning director and star of the 1990 Western epic "Dances with Wolves" walked away from the blockbuster television series "Yellowstone" and put up his own property to self-fund this Civil War-era yarn, demonstrating a kind of dogged, single-minded commitment and determination akin to the pioneers of the Old West. Much like Francis Ford Coppola's self-funded "Megalopolis," which also premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival alongside "Horizon," it is an admirable yet also delusional dedication to the cause of deeply personal cinema.
But what unfolds on screen over the course of three hours and one minute in "Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1" can only be described as a massive boondoggle, a misguided and excruciatingly tedious cinematic experience. That Costner has promised three more installments feels like a threat. "They don't make them like this anymore," is usually a compliment.
With "Horizon," it's a condemnation. They don't make them like this anymore because we've evolved past this kind of broad, cheesy Western melodrama (with questionable racial and sexual politics). They d.
